Maintaining Your Weight Can Help Maintain Your Youth

Do you know that fat can speed up the aging process? When it comes to ways to enhance our anti-aging efforts, most of us think about anti-wrinkle creams and fancy skin care products, but it’s important to consider the damaging effects of those extra five pounds as well. In fact, according to recent studies, “people who carry more weight age faster than those whose weight is within healthy limits.” These same studies found that, “the more people weigh, the older their cells appear,” and “the cells of obese people appeared to be an average of nine years older than those of people of normal weight.” But, how do you know what your “normal” weight should be?

The first thing you need to do is figure out your ideal weight. This is where the Body Mass Index (BMI) comes in. your BMI is based on height and weight. A BMI of 18.6 to 24.9 is considered a healthy weight range, greater than 25 is overweight. But how do you figure this stuff out? There are plenty of websites that offer a free BMI evaluation such as the National Lung and Blood Institute at www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/. You simply input your height and weight and they do the rest.

The anti-aging benefits of maintaining a healthy weight – or BMI – can include the prevention of life-threatening and age accelerating illness such as Heart Disease, Cancer and Diabetes, more elasticity of the skin – which prevents sagging – and more energy. Those are just to name a few. But it is important to lose – or maintain – your weight in a safe way. Crash diets, yo-yo dieting and starvation not only don’t work; they are unsafe and will speed up the aging process flushing all your anti-aging goals right down the toilette.

Keep in mind, I am talking about maintaining a healthy weight, which means you should not be too heavy or too thin. This is key because in today’s society many people feel the thinner the better. Well, not when you are talking about anti-aging efforts! Eat a healthy, well-balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables as well as fiber, and seek a professional to help you come up with a workable exercise routine and schedule. If you try to go from sitting around on the couch all day to running 10 miles a day, you are just asking for early burn-out. Build up your exercise slowly and at a pace you can maintain.

Food is not the enemy; in fact, it can be your best weapon in the anti-aging fight. So remember to treat it, and your body, with the love and respect they deserve.